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No abstract

‘Waste’ is everything that the owner intends to remove, or has to be removed, or has been already removed. This is merely a juridical concept. It is only through a concrete reference that waste becomes a concrete object with a real meaning. The wastes can contain hazardous components that pollute and endanger the environment, but they can also consist of valuable materials, which are a source of secondary raw materials. To assess the environmental risk or to calculate the economic benefit of disposed or dumped material, a reliable knowledge of the waste composition is required. As experience has regularly shown, conflicts and lawsuits result when the waste composition cannot be reliably determined. The problems are created because the wastes are mixtures of particles, pieces, and lumps that vary in size and shape as well as in chemical composition and physical properties. The basis for the evaluation of a waste material are measurement results obtained from samples. The measured values generally differ from the true composition of the waste. These differences, called the measurement deviations, are random and unavoidable. To ensure that the results of investigation and evaluation are comparable, certain regulations must be followed. The present article takes up this problem on the example of different applications of waste management. The examples confirm that sampling is one of the most important measures for the characterization of waste materials.